🌐 Despite the ongoing discussion about the declining role of the state in international relations, the importance of diplomacy has never been questioned in research papers.

▪️ The founder of classical realism, Hans Morgenthau, described diplomacy as the core element of power and a way of converting all types of public resources into influence.

▪️ A well-known theorist of international relations, Adam Watson, saw diplomacy as a tool of interaction between independent states that exist in a common international environment and as a means of protecting the internal environment of states from external impulses.

▪️ Norwegian researcher Iver Neumann identified three main profiles in forming the diplomat’s professional qualities: “a bureaucrat,” “a hero,” and “a mediator.”

The study of diplomatic practices is crucial as the international order transitions from hegemony to polycentricity, intensifying rivalry between states.

A new Valdai Club report “Crafting National Interests: How Diplomatic Training Impacts Sovereignty” represents a preliminary exploration of the training of international analysts and diplomatic personnel worldwide, conducted by MGIMO University.

The contributors assert that the quality of diplomatic training holds significant importance in enabling nation-states to attain autonomy and agency in the evolving polycentric world order.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/reports/crafting-national-interests-diplomatic-training/

⏰ The presentation of the report will take place today, at 16:00 Moscow Time (GMT+3). Watch the live broadcast on our website.

#Return_of_Diplomacy #valdai_report #diplomacy

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⏰ TODAY at 16:00 Moscow Time (GMT+3), the Valdai Club will present a new report titled “Crafting National Interests: How Diplomatic Training Impacts Sovereignty”

❓To what extent are Western countries prepared to end the “strategic vacation” and return to competition?
❓What traditions of training diplomats have the World Majority states acquired during the post-colonial period?

Participants in the discussion will try to answer these and other questions.

Links to the live broadcast of the discussion will be posted on all online platforms of the Valdai Club: on the website, X (formerly Twitter), VKontakte, Telegram and Dzen.

#Return_of_Diplomacy #diplomacy #valdai_report

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🎥 LIVE: at 16:00 Moscow Time (GMT+3), the Valdai Club will present a new report titled “Crafting National Interests: How Diplomatic Training Impacts Sovereignty”

https://vk.com/video-214192832_456239182

#Return_of_Diplomacy #diplomacy #valdai_report

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📆 ANNOUNCEMENT: On July 10, at 16:00 Moscow Time (GMT+3), the Valdai Club will host a discussion, titled “Russia in the World: Results of the Foreign Policy Season 2023-2024.”

The recent period has been a particularly successful one for Russia’s foreign policy. This can be seen in the expansion of the BRICS, the addition of new members to the SCO, and the increasing reach of Russia’s global presence. President Putin’s visit to China following his re-election, his recent visits to North Korea and Vietnam, the deepening cooperation between Russia and Iran, joint military exercises with China, and naval exercises held by Russia in the Atlantic demonstrate new priorities in Russia’s foreign policy strategy.

Vladimir Putin’s statement regarding Russia’s potential supply of weapons to adversaries of several NATO countries demonstrates Moscow’s preparedness to take retaliatory actions in the event of increased military support for Ukraine. The 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive, which seemed promising to Russia’s opponents, was intended to culminate in a “peace summit” in Switzerland, where an ultimatum was to be presented to Russia. However, Russian military operations and diplomatic efforts thwarted these plans.

Thus, both the Ukrainian offensive and the planned conference in Switzerland ended in a failure. Russia’s proposals for conflict resolution outlined during the Istanbul negotiations in April 2022 had been rejected.

❓Given these developments, what can be expected from the upcoming foreign policy period?
❓How will the crisis in Ukraine evolve, and what are the prospects for a resolution?

Participants in this discussion will address these and other questions.

🎙️ Speakers:

🇷🇺 Andrey Rudenko, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia @MFARussia

🇷🇺 Vladimir Chizhov, First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defence and Security

🇷🇺 Alexey Krivopalov, Senior Research Fellow of the Central Asia Sector, Fellow of the Post-Soviet Studies Centre, IMEMO

🇿🇦 David Monyae, Director, Centre for China-Africa Studies, University of Johannesburg

Moderator:

🗣 Ivan Timofeev @sanctionsrisk, programme director of the Valdai Discussion Club

https://valdaiclub.com/events/announcements/valdai-club-to-discuss-results-of-the-foreign-policy-season-2023-2024/

Working languages: Russian, English.

ℹ️ Information for the media: Dear journalists, to be accredited for the event, please fill out the form on our website. If you have any questions about the event, call +79269307763.

Links to the live broadcast of the discussion will be posted on all online platforms of the Valdai Club: on the website, X (formerly Twitter), VKontakte, Telegram and Dzen.

#Multipolarity_and_Connectivity #diplomacy #Russia

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⏰ TODAY at 16:00 Moscow Time (GMT+3), the Valdai Club will host a discussion, titled “Russia in the World: Results of the Foreign Policy Season 2023-2024.”

❓Given these developments, what can be expected from the upcoming foreign policy period?
❓How will the crisis in Ukraine evolve, and what are the prospects for a resolution?

Participants in this discussion will address these and other questions.

Links to the live broadcast of the discussion will be posted on all online platforms of the Valdai Club: on the website, X (formerly Twitter), VKontakte, Telegram and Dzen.

#Return_of_Diplomacy #diplomacy #Russia

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🎥 LIVE: at 16:00 Moscow Time (GMT+3), we are starting a discussion, titled “Russia in the World: Results of the Foreign Policy Season 2023-2024.”

https://vk.com/video-214192832_456239201

#Multipolarity_and_Connectivity #diplomacy #Russia

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🗣 On July 10, 2024, the Valdai Discussion Club held a discussion, titled “Russia in the World: Results of the Foreign Policy Season 2023-2024.”

📷 Photo gallery

🎥 Video

#Multipolarity_and_Connectivity #diplomacy #Russia

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🌏 The Results of Foreign Policy Season: A Multipolar Whirlpool

On July 10, 2024, the Valdai Club hosted an expert discussion, titled “Russia in the World: Results of the Foreign Policy Season 2023-2024”.

💬 Moderator Ivan Timofeev called this season quite eventful. He highlighted the emergence of the concept of a Eurasian security structure in Russian foreign policy philosophy, the expansion of BRICS, Vladimir Putin’s visits to the DPRK and Vietnam, deepening interaction with Iran, joint exercises with China, Russia's presence in the Atlantic Ocean, the development of the Ukrainian conflict, and the failure of the Swiss summit. “We are in the centre, in a whirlpool of events, however, it is under control,” Timofeev concluded.

💬 “The world has changed dramatically since February 2022 and continues to change. What happened in February 2022 was the culmination of trends that have developed over the past decades, said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko. “We were waiting for this, preparing for it, but it was difficult to be fully ready for such dramatic and tectonic shifts.” Now the world is completely different - the era of Western dominance is ending, new centres of power are emerging among the countries of the Global South, and Russia occupies a special place as a Eurasian power with its own geopolitical priorities, he stressed.

💬 Vladimir Chizhov, First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defence and Security, presented a brief outline of the situation in Europe. He noted that Europe today prefers to associate itself more with the Euro-Atlantic than with Eurasia, and called this a conceptual mistake. According to him, Russia has always advocated for the European Union to be an independent centre in a multipolar world, but the Europeans have chosen the opposite path, turning Europe into an appendage of the United States, and the EU into an appendage of NATO. As for relations with Russia, in the eyes of the European Union it gradually turned from a strategic partner first into a strategic opponent, and later into the main enemy. NATO, which had lost its reason for existence, also regained it in the confrontation with Russia.

💬 David Monyae, Director of the Centre for China-Africa Studies at the University of Johannesburg, spoke about Russian-African relations. He recalled that the Soviet Union had played an important role in the liberation of the African continent. In the transition from a US-dominated world order to a multipolar world, the African countries prefer to stay away from the struggle between the superpowers; they reject the idea of a zero-sum game, strive for non-alignment and choose neutrality. Africa and Russia are united by the fact that they advocate respect for strategic interests and global reforms of international organisations. Russia supports Africa's desire to take a more worthy place in the international system.

💬 Alexey Krivopalov, Senior Research Fellow of the Central Asia Sector, Fellow of the Post-Soviet Studies Centre, IMEMO, raised the issue of military operations in Ukraine and the connection between foreign policy, military-strategic and operational-tactical horizons in this context. According to Krivopalov, while Russia’s foreign policy position looks exceptionally strong, and at the military-strategic level the picture as a whole does not cause concern, then at the operational-tactical level, from the very beginning of the political season under discussion, the unresolved problem of positional balance still remains, and tactics do not have simple recipes for overcoming. He called this a reason to look into the future with cautious optimism.

https://valdaiclub.com/events/posts/articles/the-results-of-foreign-policy-season-a-multipolar-whirlpool/

#Multipolarity_and_Connectivity #diplomacy #Russia

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